Jane (Berkman) Feld

Beloved of all who knew her, Jane Berkman Feld died November 8, 2025, at Upstate Community Hospital. She was a champion of peace and social justice. She protested discrimination at Syracuse city schools, Niagara Mohawk and the bars at McCarthy's and Hotel Syracuse. Jane marched against the Viet Nam and Iraq wars. She took part in demonstrations in Washington, D.C., when M.L.King, Jr. spoke.

She was a prolific writer of letters to the Post-Standard and the New York Times concerning food, travel and politics. She was restaurant critic for the local monthly Syracuse Guide. An essay about the people Jane and her late husband, Sam, met on a 6-month trip around the world was published by the Times in the Sunday Travel Section. 

She was a past member of the local boards of League of Women Voters, NOW and the ACLU, founding member of Syracuse Women for Peace and member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She sang with the Syracuse Chorale and other groups.

Jane was an ardent tennis player. In her later years, she was dubbed by neighbors, “the matriarch of Allen Street.” The youngest of 8, Jane was born on May 8, 1925, in Syracuse to Jewish immigrants from Germany (mother, Lena Bauman) and Lithuania (father, Levi Berkman). She graduated from Central High School and cum laude from Syracuse University. She received a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois. Jane worked in research, primarily in program evaluation at Hutchings Psychiatric Center. 

Jane's husband of 63 years, Sam, died in 2014.  Her family included her late sisters, Dorothea Soule, Ethel Glinsky, Ruth Sugarman, and Gertrude Shapiro and her late brothers, Jack, Henry and Saul Berkman. 

Surviving are daughter, Louise Doubleday and sons, David and Barry Feld and grandchildren, Max, Meredith, Kevin and Maya and her great grandson, Leonardo “Leo”.

Jane willed her body to the Upstate Anatomical Gift Program. A memorial will take place in the future.

Contributions may be made to Syracuse Meals on Wheels, 300 Burt St., Syracuse 13202 or Petit Branch Library, 105 Victoria Pl., Syracuse, NY 13210. 

Leave condolences for the family on the Tribute Wall

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Jane (Berkman) Feld, please visit our floral store.